At Vasant Valley, access to the school has been blocked and the school gates are being monitored, Director Arun Kapur said. “Friendly access is now being curtailed,” he said. Some schools said that while they have increased security, they are not publicising this, as they don’t want to create panic. “We have had CCTV cameras at the entrances for a long time now,” Modern School Principal Lata Vaidyanathan said. “We have restricted entry into school now.”

Several school said parents have responded well to the increased security.

In Gurgaon, DPS plans to introduce a GSM-enabled chip among other measures that will help trace students in case of an emergency. “Though this was in the pipeline for a while, we have now decided to implement these measures by March. With the GSM technology, we will be able to alert security agencies if a student is in trouble. The monthly charges will be shared by the parents and the school,” Ashish Prasad, school administrator, said. The parents are, however, protesting against the security deposit of Rs 2,700 and Rs 350 on a monthly basis.

With inputs from Aneesha Mathur & Tanushree Roy Chowdhury